Contenders able to avoid spills

Martin's lead unchanged following seven crashes that take down 30 riders

Associated Press

Published 10:02 pm, Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Photo: Bryn Lennon

Image 1of/1

Caption

Close

Image 1 of 1

AMIENS, FRANCE - JULY 08: Andre Greipel of Germany and Lotto-Soudal celebrates his victory during stage five of the 2015 Tour de France, a 189.5km stage between Arras and Amiens on July 8, 2015 in Amiens, France. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 560071863 less

AMIENS, FRANCE - JULY 08: Andre Greipel of Germany and Lotto-Soudal celebrates his victory during stage five of the 2015 Tour de France, a 189.5km stage between Arras and Amiens on July 8, 2015 in Amiens, ... more

Photo: Bryn Lennon

Contenders able to avoid spills

1 / 1

Back to Gallery

Amiens, France

With crashes taking down riders on rain-drenched roads, keeping team leaders safe was the order of the day on Wednesday's fifth stage of the Tour de France.

By the time Andre Greipel attacked in the last 100 meters to win his second stage of the Tour, and a third in five days for German riders, the last of the day's seven crashes had taken down 30 riders.

There had been a big spill in Stage 3, too, involving some 20 riders. But once again, Chris Froome and the other Tour contenders avoided them.

"There was absolutely everything out there today. It rained, which made the roads slippery, and it was also windy," said Ian Stannard, Froome's Team Sky teammate. "That made for a stressful day."

Peter Sagan, a Slovak rider seeking to win the green jersey as the Tour's best sprinter for a fourth straight year, had even more reason to feel tired.

He spent most of the day protecting his Tinkoff-Saxo teammate Alberto Contador, and then contested the stage sprint, zooming ahead of British rider Mark Cavendish to take second place behind Greipel.

"It was also very crazy today with rain, wind and a lot of crashes and I'm happy with how we finished," Sagan said. Three of his teammates were involved in crashes, but not Contador.

"Everybody wants to be at the front on a day like this to protect the team leaders and that creates tension," Sagan said. "I want to help and protect Alberto."

The yellow jersey group rolled over the line with no change to the leading positions.

German rider Tony Martin, the winner of Stage 4, still leads Froome by 12 seconds and Tejay Van Garderen, a promising American rider with strong climbing skills, by 25.

"Everyone thought today was going to be the relaxed day of the tour. But the wind and the rain made it anything but," Van Garderen said. "Luckily, I have one of the strongest teams here."

The stage took the weary peloton over 117.5 miles from Arras to Amiens in northern France, passing some of the battlefields of World War I.

The rain, which largely stayed away the day before, thundered down and turned the roads into something of an ice rink.

Clinching the eighth stage win of his Tour career on damp tarmac, Greipel punched the air in delight.

Now Playing:

Crash No. 7 happened at the back of the peloton with 15.5 miles to go. Three riders went off the road to the right, tumbling into crash barriers. Behind, others fell in a domino effect. Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, third on last year's Tour, had his second crash of the day.

Because speeds were not high, most riders were more groggy than hurt as they looked to see where exactly their bike was amid a myriad of spinning pedals and jutting-out handlebars.